WAP54G question

I have the older WAP54G (7 LED's, 1.08 firmware). I cannot connect to
the internet (from both a Dell (intel 1400) wireless adapter (running
XP Pro-SP1) or a viewsonic PC card (running XP-Pro-SP2) with WEP
enabled. I can connect to the access point with WEP enabled, but I get
the "X" for the internet and the limited connectivity message. In both
cases I had to manually supply an IP address, gateway, and DNS server
address. I was told there is a 1.09 firmware upgrade somewhere as
Linksys tech support states this version doesn't support the new
firmware 2.0x.

On 4 Jul 2005 09:36:15 -0700, "(E-Mail Removed)"
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>I have the older WAP54G (7 LED's, 1.08 firmware). I cannot connect to
>the internet (from both a Dell (intel 1400) wireless adapter (running
>XP Pro-SP1) or a viewsonic PC card (running XP-Pro-SP2) with WEP
>enabled. I can connect to the access point with WEP enabled, but I get
>the "X" for the internet and the limited connectivity message. In both
>cases I had to manually supply an IP address, gateway, and DNS server
>address. I was told there is a 1.09 firmware upgrade somewhere as
>Linksys tech support states this version doesn't support the new
>firmware 2.0x.

1. What is the WAP54G plugged into? What other equipment do you have
to work with? The DHCP server has to be somewhere.
2. Do you have the correct cable between the WAP54G and whatever
you're plugged into? You can check using the LAN or ethernet light on
the WAP54G. If it's on, you have the correct cable. If you have
other computers on your LAN and can connect to the WAP54G setup page,
then the cable is correct.
3. Can you connect with WEP disabled (no encryption)? Inability of
the various manufacturers to convert from ASCII to Hex keys seems to
be a problem. If WEP disabled works, try using a Hex key on both the
WAP54G and your wireless clients. That will always work.
4. I can't tell from your description if your arrangement worked when
you supplied a manually configured IP address, gateway, mask, and DNS.
Does it? If it does, then there's some kind of communications problem
between wherever your DHCP server is located and the wireless clients.
Where is the DHCP server? If you have a router connected, it's in
there. If you do not have a router, and are plugging this affair into
a DSL or cable modem, then this arragement will not work. The DSL or
cable ISP will only supply one IP address. You'll need a router with
NAT features to share this single IP address with multiple computers.

--
Jeff Liebermann (E-Mail Removed)
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 AE6KS 831-336-2558

Yes, I thought I had mentioned that in my original message; with WEP
disabled I can connect to the internet on both laptops. The DHCP
server is also a Linksys router (no wireless) and it is connected to a
network with aboput 6 other computers (all wired) with the linksys 4
port switch (as part of the router), and an additional 24 port switch.
The rest of the network works fine with 2 file servers, and a cable
modem. I was under the impression that the router would automatically
supply an IP address to the wireless laptops, I am using a Linksys WAP
and non-linksys PC cards. I'll try typing in 10 hex codes instead of
the paraphrase and see what happens.

On 4 Jul 2005 14:17:20 -0700, "(E-Mail Removed)"
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>Yes, I thought I had mentioned that in my original message; with WEP
>disabled I can connect to the internet on both laptops. The DHCP
>server is also a Linksys router (no wireless) and it is connected to a
>network with aboput 6 other computers (all wired) with the linksys 4
>port switch (as part of the router), and an additional 24 port switch.
>The rest of the network works fine with 2 file servers, and a cable
>modem. I was under the impression that the router would automatically
>supply an IP address to the wireless laptops, I am using a Linksys WAP
>and non-linksys PC cards. I'll try typing in 10 hex codes instead of
>the paraphrase and see what happens.

If you can connect with WEP disabled, then the wiring and such are
working. Methinks using a hex WEP key should solve the connection
problem.

The cause is the lack of useable diagnostics or status display in
Windoze XP SP2 Wireless Zero Config. What happens is that after
typing in the WEP key, you get a message of "Connected" followed by
"Waiting for IP address". If the WEP key is not accepted, it will
wait for about 45 seconds before belching a "Limited Connectivity"
message. There is no indication that the WEP key was not acceptable.
WZC has no provision for specifying the type of encryption and will
step through all the possible 64/128 bit and ASCII/Hex combinations
until it finds something that works. Unfortunately, it only deals
with one vendors creative interpretation of ASCII to Hex conversion,
and will not try the other. If you think you're having trouble with
getting a WEP key accepted, use Hex instead of ASCII. Even better,
use WPA which doesn't seem to have the ASCII to Hex conversion issue
and more secure.


--
Jeff Liebermann (E-Mail Removed)
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 AE6KS 831-336-2558

That turned out to be the problem. The WEP key in the PC Cards were
only in HEX. When I typed in the Hex phrase, both computers connected
with no problem at all.